1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information detecting apparatus for detecting an item of information corresponding to an entered specific item of information, from within a memory having multiple items of information stored therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an information retrieving apparatus for detecting a certain specific item of information from within a memory having multiple items of information stored therein, it is easy to compare each of the stored items of information with the specific item of information to derive a corresponding result. However, if the information stored in the memory consists of a natural language, retrieval must be effected after the specific item of information entered for retrieval has been converted into the same language as the information stored in the memory.
For such purpose, most retrieving apparatuses using a natural language to effect retrieval have been equipped with a thesaurus, with the aid of which the natural language has been converted into a mechanical language and, thereafter, retrieval has been effected.
Such thesaurus has required much time and labor to prepare and, moreover, words falling within one category (a group of synonyms) have been converted into one kind of mechanical language. This has made it difficult to make distinctions between items of information within the one category.
Further, assume that there are words A1, A2, A3, . . . all falling within one category, and words B1, B2, B3, . . . Bn falling within another category. Even if there is the relation that A1=Bn, the use of A1 for retrieval has only enabled retrieval of the information falling within category A and the use of Bn for retrieval has only enabled retrieval of the information falling within category B.
More specifically, with the retrieval systems according to the prior art, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 1(A) of the accompanying drawings, an interrogation is entered into the information retrieving apparatus and such interrogation has reference to a thesaurus within the apparatus. The interrogation is converted into a header word, with the aid of which answer information is put out from a memory having multiple items of information stored therein. Such answer information has been one which corresponds to the interrogation not directly, but through the header word.